Poem inspired by Tapestry

I, Miss Lorina Bulwer

The words spill out,

Tumble over themselves.

They say, why am I here?

The rant goes on at length,

Suddenly lucid thoughts prevail

Slow and deliberate,

Speaking of people she has known

With Royal connections

The Maharajah of Kelvedon

Caught in a tapestry web

Dr Pinching from Essex was the bearer

Of the good news.

A properly shaped female

Not a eunuch or hermaphrodite

But Aphrodite!

Did her birth confuse them?

And send her to the workhouse?

Sister and brother sealed her fate,

Parental death bore her there

On sibling’s arms.

To that place where nothing lives

Except despair

And Turnbridge and Powell.

Lives preserved in linen and thread

Lives preserved in linen and thread.

Shame on famous families

Great names hide there,

Gurneys, Bulwers of Wood Dalling,

Did they know?

The plots are uncovered

One by one by this tortured soul.

It hurts me to read,

I feel sick and tired,

Reality holds her with a thin thread,

Fate sealed here, but she knows

Truth will appear one day.

For now, she hides it

In a cupboard to preserve.

Hilary Hanbury  January 2017

Lorina was an inmate in the lunatic wing of Great Yarmouth workhouse where she angrily embroidered her letters on trailing lengths of patchwork fabric, venting about being locked up and abandoned by friends and family. Her furious hand-stitched letters, painstakingly sewn together while she was incarcerated, have long fascinated me.

The tapestry was found long after her death over a hundred years ago and has recently been on display at a number of Norfolk Museums.

I am presently writing a novel inspired by her story.

Change of Date for next Rural Writes meeting in Gorleston.

Our meeting which was to be held on 7th Feb is cancelled and as the following week falls in half term, the next meeting will be 11.30 - 13.30 on 21st February. 

If anyone from the other groups which make up the Rural Writes team of writers would like to visit one of the Gorleston meetings you will be made very welcome. 

Poem by Lyn McKinney

Julia Webb's Poetry Masterclass at Gorleston Rural Writes group encouraged one of our members to pen the poem below. It was inspired by our current theme,  the Women of Norfolk.

There will be more following very soon.

Thank you Lyn for the lovely engraving which is featured with the poem.

MARY EASTEY AND REBECCA NURSE

Leaving Yarmouth town Plough Monday

Sisters board the brig as though it were

A stepping stone to a dream.

A crescent moon hangs low

Over the black waters of the Yare

Showing their path to the stars.

Ropes are cast and the lights of familiar places

Fall away in the deepening gloom,

Sails flapping, salt spray flying, she’s away

Out into the bay on the rising tide.

Families huddle below creaking decks

As the cradle rocks ominously.

Father Towne watches over his girls,

Sleeping in their woollen shawls,

Their arms around each other.

Was it God who called him to Paradise?

How can he know

Their dark destiny?

Six bells, and a bleak, uncaring morning,

Only the brave are there to see it;

Rough seas break across the bow,

Making the timbers creak in pain.

There are few takers for the bread

And thin soup.

Six year old Mary holds Rebecca’s hand,

Lest she should lose her footing

And be pulled overboard by the sea serpents.

But her sister keeps them at bay,

With stories of lions and tigers,

And kindly strangers.

Two months at sea, with pale faces anxiously

Scanning the horizon, until a lengthy shoreline looms.

There is a service of thanksgiving where  

Mary clutches her doll and smiles up at Rebecca.

Who knows what devilment awaits them

In Salem, Mass?

by  Lyn McKinney

Poetry Masterclass in Gorleston

We all agreed that the Poetry Masterclass with Julia Webb was very enjoyable and has given us all some great ideas for the future. Here is the group at the Library